DYNASTY ( sw.. ) ✔

oo. prologue..

10 BBY

"Premission to land granted. Please head to Hangar 7. Welcome to Shova and enjoy your stay..."

Han Solo switched off the comunication channel and with one sigh of relief, he stirred the Millennium Falcon to the Hangar, now alight to guide their way. Many ships landed generally in Shova for a rest or refills, since that's the only use for the city overall, but scarcely anyone visited at this late hour in the night.

"We're lucky someone was in the control tower," Han threw Chewie a look, meaningful enough to send a clear message to the Wookie.

From the cloth Chewie was holding in his arms came out a mess of curly red hair first, and only after the small face of a child girl. "Where are we?"

"Shova," Han answered to the child and while landing the ship, he pulled the cloth over her bright hair. That untamable mane was almost the size of the child and it would draw too much attention in such a shady city.

But the child's eyes widened in synchronisation with her big smile and she quickly pushed out of the cloth she was wrapped in, jumping on the Wookie's lap and almost falling over. "Is my ma and pa here? Did they get here before us?"

"No one faster than us, princess," Han answered again. And though he tried to keep up his charming smile, sadness made him sound more like a droid, with no emotions, than a person filled with sorrow.

He managed to glance though at the child Chewie was holding from hurting herself out of so much curiosity to see the Millennium land on this odd planet. The Princess of Vonath, Lorna Stardom. Vonatg was a prosperous little planet on the Meridian Belt of the glaxay that had the misfortune of crossing the authority over imports and exports.

Han and Chewie got a last minute call from the princess' father, giving them only her name, her picture and a load of credits, all to get her off the planet before the imminent raid that would certainly target the royal family. They ought to keep her safe and away for two moons, then return her home to get the rest of their payment.

Until then though, they knew they left behind a slaughter and when the princess will return, she'd come back to bury her whole family. That's why Han Solo's moral was down and he required a reminder form Chewie to get back to being himself.

There was no reason to trouble the kid with these matters of war yet, and as long as she was with them, she'd have time to feel happy and free a bit more. "Alright," Han breathed out, switching off the engines. "How old are you, kiddo?"

Lorna gasped, shaking her head full of curls, "A gentleman never asks a lady for her age!" She ended her comment with a giggle. "But...," she huffed, bringing her hand to her chin. "I might reconsider giving you my truth, if you give me yours first, kind Sir!"

"Did you hear that, Chewie!" Han beamed in a wave of laughter. "This tiny red monster is calling me a sir." He got off his seat and waited for Chewie to get up with the princess in his arms, giving her the joy of hopping off herself.

But she looked up at Han, expecting. It was the Wookie's turn to hit his friend and laugh. "Oh, right," Han nodded. "I am twenty-two years old, princess!"

Lorna watched Han do a very amusing bow and immediately burst out laughing with them, "You're so old! I am only nine years old. Why do you ask?"

"Just so I know what kind of food you are allowed to eat. You must be starving!"

With Han's guilt and Chewie's immediate attachment to the child, the problems were truly quick to arrive over the usual care they took of her. The spent two good nights on Shova before trouble found the Guild memebers in the form of some merchants they tricked about two months ago.

The first blasts woke Lorna up to an empty bed. She was covered in the two blankets the kind travellers, friends of her father, gave her. She grew to like them, even if she was confused about why her parents took so long to meet with them on Shova.

They left her home planet in such a hurry she almost thought they were ill intended. But they gave her proof, they were not thieves, nor liars... Lorna trusted them.

So the moment the blasts woke her up, she pulled the blankets to her nose and called in the dark room, "Han! Chewie?"

Her tiny voice must have been covered by the absolute havoc going on outside her door. Flashes of red and green were exchanged, giving light to her room in terrifying ways. With each loud sound, the princess' heard hammered stronger.

Until a vlast pierced the door and though missing her completely, it gave her view to how some men took Han out on the window and Chewie jumped after them.

"Wait for me!" Lorna shouted and left the comfort of her bed, even if she did snatch one blanket with her. She wrapped it on her shoulders like some sort of cape, as if that would be enough to keep her warm when her feet were running down the stairs and on the halls with no shoes.

She ran into the street, rather dazzled by the amount of tall people around her, as frightened by the commotion as she was. But the child, not hearing any sign of the battle over the general noise, decided to wait for them at the Millennium Falcon.

"Hangar 7!" She exclaimed and sprinted away from the inn they stayed at. If they were attacked, she imagined they'd be heading for the ship, and even if they don't, they'd simply know to look for her there.

Lorna watched Han fly that ship and land it, and though she couldn't remember punctually how to open it, she imagined it wouldn't be so hard once she got there. Back on Vonath she was the fastest amongst her friends too, so she had no problem with running down the streets, even if she didn't recognize most of them.

The mess of curly red hair ran through other people's feet, always looking up after the hangar numbers. And to her surprise, once she found the 7th one, she saw the ship with the lid open.

"Found you!" She grinned and hurried inside.

Han and Chewie were fidgeting around the Millennium Falcon when the Wookie smacked his friend with a wail.

"The princess?" Han questioned confused, almost ready to fight him for that slap. But then, he remembered they were one ginger kid short. "The princess! Chewie, we need to get back and grab her!"

Without a single moment of hesitation, both Han and Chewie left the ship to sneak back into the city and find the princess who they left sleeping in her bed. However, she was already on board a strange ship that was leaving Hangag 17, where the one has been wiped away by rust and time.

Lorna Stardom never made it back to Vonath and Han Solo is now wanted dead on the planet for losing her on Shova. The ship she illegally boarded there was nothing but merchants from the Outer Rim, people who heard of the misfortune of her home.

They told her everything and she realized that Han Solo and Chewbacca had lied to her all along, for money. Her parents would have never come to meet them on Shova, because they were already dead.

Refusing to return to Vonath on her own, now that she knew there was nothing waiting for her, Lorna stayed with the merchants for a while, then... of course, fate carried her on much different paths.